


Fake it till you make it

by QueenC



Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: Canon Divergent, ChalexWeek2020, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Find Your Drink Party, M/M, alternative take
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:29:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25681345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenC/pseuds/QueenC
Summary: The gods of fake-dating can sometimes work some miracles. An alternative take on how things happened during the Find Your Drink party.Chalex Week 2020, day 7:free day
Relationships: Charlie St. George/Alex Standall
Comments: 18
Kudos: 92
Collections: Chalex Week 2020





	Fake it till you make it

**Author's Note:**

> So this fic is not my original idea, and honestly, I didn't entirely like how it turned out but I guess we all have that rebellious fic that no matter how hard you try won't swing the way you expect. Also, it's almost midnight in my time-zone and I refuse not to take part in the last day of Chalex Week having a full story in my hands just because I didn't like it much. I do hope you guys like it more than I did, tho.

From the moment the words “Are we going to get you laid tonight?” left Luke Holliday's lips, Charlie knew it was going to be _one of those nights_.

By one of those nights, he meant he knew his jock friends would team up to try and get him to hook up with someone. And honestly, he didn't understand the appeal of it. Not the hooking up part — mind him, Charlie was a teenager after all, and he quite enjoyed a good makeout session with someone he really liked any time of day. But that was it, wasn't it. The with-someone-he-really-liked part. It just didn't work for him the way it worked for his friends.

He saw no point of just making out with some random girl — or boy — for one night, one party, never to see them again, never to talk to them except for meaningless words muffled against each other's mouths amidst heavy kissing. Charlie could see why his friends were into it, he wouldn't lie. And he had actually put some effort into trying it quite a few times before but it just left him feeling empty once it was all gone. 

So random hookups were usually a big no for him, and his teammates knew about it. But they tended to fully ignore this detail, on the basis that _once he was the quarterback, then he had to get some_ , and it all usually ended up with them lining up to introduce him to a long list of pretty girls and, funny enough, every boy they happened to know was out and proud that came to these parties. As if by only being part of the LGBTQ+ community was enough for Charlie to like them or vice versa. Charlie was constantly amused by how they could be so woke, and yet so daft at the same time.

He sometimes thought he would rather be picked on as 'that guy who never sees any action' then having to endure this nagging every damn party, but it wasn't in his hands to choose. 

His plan today was to find Alex and take him away to some hidden corner of the house, far from any of his friends' attempts at getting him laid, far from any celebrations about Monty, far from all that mess of drunk people and bad music. He'd been surprised when Alex texted him saying he would be at the party. Earlier that week, he had said he was not into parties and was specifically intent on passing on this one. It was a nice, refreshing surprise to have him there. Charlie would have attended anyway, but the prospect had grown ten times better by knowing that Alex was going to be there too.

And him being the first face Charlie saw when he entered the kitchen looking for something to drink worked just fine to improve his mood further.

“Hey, you,” Charlie's grin was big as he approached the older boy, stopping at the other side of the kitchen island to better look at him. “Did you find your drink yet?”

“Not really, and I'm now extremely confused,” stated Alex, eyebrows slightly raised as he lifted a bottle of some odd-looking, poorly-colored _something_ to Charlie's curious eyes. “Did you know there was something such as smoked salmon vodka?”

“No, God, why would anyone do that,” said Charlie, appalled, inching closer to inspect the bottle Alex was holding. “This looks awful.”

“True, and I'm surely not brave enough to try and find out,” agreed Alex, carefully placing the bottle back at the counter. “What are you having?”

“I'm not sure I'm drinking,” said Charlie. “I drove here, and I'm not known best for holding my liquor well.”

“Really?” Asked Alex, interested. “Any embarrassing, delightful stories I might wanna hear about?”

“I'm gonna have to say plenty, but you surely won't hear them from me,” promised Charlie, earning a laugh from Alex. He was about to inform Alex he had brought some very special cookies, in case he wanted to share, when Diego took that moment to stride into the kitchen.

“Hey, man, you're finally here,” he said in lieu of a greeting. “About damn time. We're starting a game in the dining room, if you'd like to join, and also — Stacy brought her friend, she asked about you. You know, in case you'd like to meet her.”

And that's how it started. At first, mere suggestions here and there about whether would he want to meet this person or that one, and as the night progressed and his friends got drunker and rowdier, it tended to evolve to them full-on pushing Charlie towards people. Or people towards Charlie. Sometimes physically. Luke once had bodily dragged him to an oblivious drama club boy from Lakeside High. Needless to say, it turned into a mess that most times Charlie tried to avoid by leaving parties early.

“Nah, man, I'm good, thanks,” said Charlie with a smile. “I'll just hang here for a while more. Catch up with you guys later?”

Diego threw him a half reproachful, half conformed smirk and nodded, leaving the kitchen with two indistinct bottles in his hands. Alex turned to him with an inquiring look the moment the older jock was out of their sight.

“Not excited to meet Stacy's friend?” He asked.

“Not at all. It's the way these nights go,” he sighed, scratching his forehead absently. “They keep trying to introduce me to people all the time, it's a nightmare.”

“Wow, it must be really hard to be you,” mused Alex, and despite the fact that Charlie could still see the amusement on his face, his words were dripping with undisguised sarcasm.

“I don't mean it like that,” he chuckled faintly, looking for a way to explain his situation without sounding like a douchy jock just-so-tired of being desired and popular. “It's that-- this hooking up with random people I've never seen before doesn't work for me. I like to have a connection with the person I'm gonna be with, and it just doesn't happen at parties where you can barely keep a conversation with someone with all the noise and people bumping into you,” Charlie shrugged, self-conscious, unsure if he was making any sense.

“Hmmm,” said Alex thoughtfully, and his eyes took a once-over at Charlie before settling back on his face. His expression was hard-to-read, and Charlie shifted on his feet self-consciously, not entirely sure if he was being judged or not. “Have you tried telling your friends to stop?” Asked Alex at last.

Charlie looked at him amused. “Have you tried telling a jock he can't do something? It's an open invitation for them to do it even more.”

“Fair point.” Alex pursed his lips, eyes never leaving Charlie's face. Charlie's ears were growing very warm under his stare, but he made his best to hold his gaze. “Well, if any of your jock friends try to get you into a situation you're not comfortable with, you can always say we came together,” suggested Alex with a shrug.

“Don't give me any ideas,” warned Charlie with a smile. He hated a bit that his heart fluttered just by considering the prospect.

“Honestly, I'd like to see you make them buy it,” said Alex sourly amused. “I'm sure they wouldn't be convinced you chose the skinny, sad kid of all people. And if they did, they would never let you live it down.”

“Hey,” Charlie frowned, smile fading from his face as soon as Alex's words registered, “you know that's not how I see you, right?”

Alex just shrugged again on that 'whatever' fashion of his and busied himself with finding an empty cup among the mess that covered the balcony. Charlie's eyes remained pinned on him as the young jock racked his mind in a way to convey into words how much he appreciated Alex and his company, but everything he thought of saying seemed so cliché and meaningless. He hated that Alex saw himself that way, and wanted so bad to show to this precious boy how much he liked him, but his intentions were not in agreement with his speech abilities.

Before he could convince himself to say even some of the clichés going around in his head just to fill in the silence, Luke entered the kitchen this time.

“O Captain! My Captain!” He roared enthusiastically as soon as his eyes laid on Charlie. He crossed the distance to the younger boy in two large steps, squashing him against his side in a bear hug as if he hadn't been the first person Charlie had greeted on his way in. “Are we gonna get you laid tonight?” He asked peering leeringly at Charlie from above, eyebrows waggling suggestively.

Charlie couldn't help but laugh, looking at his friend in disbelief. “Oh my God, how much have you had to drink already? You asked me the same question not even half an hour ago,” he shook his head, amused.

“I did?” Luke frowned slightly, looking baffled at Charlie. “What was your answer?”

“I'm gonna go with 'probably not' once again, but I'm sure you might be having different ideas,” smiled Charlie wrily.

“You're damn right I am!” Agreed Luke excitedly, punching Charlie on the shoulder as he took a step back to tipsily stare at his friend. “Listen, remember that chick Barbara from Beecher's birthday party last month?”

“Luke--” Charlie tried to chip in but Luke was nothing but obstinate.

“She's here again, and maybe this time you could, you know, not vanish in front of her eyes when she's making a move at you--”

“I came with Alex,” Charlie was blurting out before he had the time to think better of his words. “I'm here with Alex, we came together.”

He turned his head to look at Alex on the other side of the counter, and his peripheral vision caught sight of a bewildered Luke doing the same. Alex, for his part, seemed totally caught off-guard, in the middle of filling his cup with some bluish, nondescript beverage. His eyes were focused on Charlie with a half surprised, half perplexed expression.

Charlie was about to backtrack from his impulsive statement — the last thing he wanted was to make Alex uncomfortable, _Jesus_ , why didn't he think this one through — when he heard Alex's voice rise enough above the music to add, “We did.”

Luke was now looking from Charlie to Alex with a suspicious look on his face. “You guys did not,” he scoffed. “You don't fool me on this one, St. George, I know you well enough. You just want to get me off your back.”

“No, he's telling the truth,” said Alex before Charlie had the time to come up with further excuses. “And honestly, I don't appreciate you trying to get him girls right under my nose, Luke,” he added, walking around the kitchen island to stop by Charlie's side. Really close. “You can go and tell your buddies that Charlie's taken for tonight.”

Charlie totally wanted to follow Alex's lead here but he was sure his face was doing something incredibly dumb, like gaping stupidly at his alleged company for the night. He was lucky enough that Luke wasn't looking his way. Instead, his friend's attention was solely focused on Alex, eyebrows almost disappearing under his hairline as he took in his classmate's words.

“I'll be sure to tell them, man. Yeah, for sure,” Luke answered, impressed eyes raking through Alex's face. Then he seemed to recover from his surprise, and a broad grin spread over his face as he nodded supportively at the duo standing in front of him. “You guys make a nice view to look at.”

“Luke, for the love of God,” begged Charlie, pulled back from his astonishment by his teammate's attempt at a compliment.

Luke unapologetically tapped Alex on the shoulder, gifting him with a piece of solid, well-intentioned advice. “You take good care of him, Standall. Our captain deserves nothing but the best.”

“I'll make sure to give him what he needs,” drawled Alex sarcastically, one hand lazily snaking up over Charlie's arm, and Charlie felt his cheeks warming. Luke didn't get his tone in his hazy state and just barked out a laugh, amiably distributing some more pats on the back before grabbing a fresh cup and leaving the kitchen.

Alex and Charlie stood side by side after he left, frozen, not daring to move and having to acknowledge the recent events. Charlie could feel his cheeks warming further, and this time it had nothing to do with what Alex had implied. It had to with wondering how would it be having Alex being possessive of him for real, not just to make Luke believe they were a thing. He'd never picked himself for one who got off on having his partner being territorial, but he was maybe playing Alex's words in his head on a loop now.

And it wasn't even real.

Alex was the first to manifest a reaction, breaking into a laugh and shaking his head amusedly.

“Jesus, you are a terrible liar,” he said, eyes lifting up to meet Charlie's, amusement clear in his face despite his chiding tone.

Charlie sputtered, waving his hands in front of himself to emphasize his surprise. “You caught me unprepared! You looked so shocked when I said it, I didn't think you'd go for it.”

“I didn't think _you_ would go for it,” argued Alex. He was still standing too close, and Charlie's mind was blurry without needing one single drop of alcohol.

“Well, it was your idea,” pondered Charlie. “But-- I'm sorry, maybe you didn't really mean it when you offered? I just wanted Luke to leave me alone for a while--”

“Charlie, it's okay, it's fine. Don't worry about it,” interrupted Alex, his serious expression giving way to a softer one. He peered up at Charlie with a guarded look before his lips set on a smirk. “But I guess now you're kind of stranded with me for the rest of the night. I can put up with a lot of shit but I'm not being stood up by my fucking fake date.”

Charlie let out a laugh at his words, shaking his head amusedly. “I wouldn't dream of it,” he promised, smiling. “Honestly, all I planned to do from the start was to spend the night with you, anyway.”

* * *

Luke wasn't kidding when he said he would let the guys know about Charlie and Alex coming to the party together. But the news seemed to have spread to beyond the football guys' circle very quickly.

The minute they stepped out of the kitchen — after discussing the pros and cons of walking out hand in hand to make their situation more believable (Charlie won the discussion in favor of holding hands but Alex hadn't really tried to oppose) — Charlie saw a lot of curious heads turning around to look at them as they crossed the room towards the lounging area. He wasn't a stranger to how gossip could spread quickly amongst a bunch of teenagers but that was a level up to what he'd seen so far.

“I had no idea you were this popular,” mumbled Alex, standing on the tip of his toes to speak closer to Charlie's ear over the music, “but then again, I shouldn't really be surprised.”

“You are quite well-known yourself,” mused Charlie, noticing some girls were consciously avoiding to even look their direction as they passed by. They made it to the outside area and sat together at a padded loveseat in the lounge. “I seem to recall some people making way for us just a few minutes ago.”

“That's a stretch, but yeah, I might have had a few moments of raging towards people in public over the last couple of years,” admitted Alex wrily, a small smile curving the corner of his lips, “so I assume you're safe for tonight under the shadow of my quick-to-anger reputation.”

“That doesn't even make sense. See, people don't know you at all,” Charlie shook his head, tilting his head and throwing Alex a teasing glance. “You're a kitten.”

“Excuse you,” said Alex offended, turning in his seat to look at Charlie. “I didn't earn all this notoriety out of nowhere. Please show some respect.”

Charlie chuckled, watching fondly as Alex broke into a smile a few seconds ago. They sat together with the background music blaring through the windows filling the silence between them for a while. Alex held his cup of liquor but didn't seem intent to keep on drinking from it.

His other hand was still linked with Charlie's, and he didn't seem in a rush to let go. Charlie was aware this was just to keep the appearances but it was so damn hard not to hope it could be more than this.

“You didn't think I'd take you up on your offer,” said Charlie, seemingly out-of-the-blue, but he had been thinking about it ever since their exchange in the kitchen, “about saying we came together to the party.”

“I told you why,” Alex shrugged. “I'm actually not over how people bought it so easily.”

“You really find it that hard to believe I could have a real interest on you?” Asked Charlie bemused.

Alex rolled his eyes, this time letting go of Charlie's hand. The absence of his touch left a tingling, longing feeling on Charlie's skin.

“Look at me, Charles. Then look back at yourself. I could never think of such a mismatch made in hell.” He brought the red cup to his lips and took a sip from it, grimacing a bit after the taste. “I'm all fucked up, and you're this embodiment of all-things-good. I don't even know how we're friends, let alone anything else.”

“This makes me regret a bit we started this as a way to get the guys out of my back,” stated Charlie. “I'll never get you to believe otherwise now, will I?”

Alex turned to look at him, suspicion written in every line of his face. “What are you saying?”

Charlie sighed, hating to have this conversation at a damn party. Of all the ways he had imagined telling Alex he was growing some feelings for him, this was not the first one in his mind.

“I'm saying I really like you, Alex,” he started, eyes earnest and open fixed on Alex's face. The older boy scoffed, shaking his head, and Charlie touched his wrist gently to get his attention back. “Let me finish. I know you're having a hard time lately believing you deserve other people's affections, or you think you're not good enough to have nice things. You don't need to tell me with words. I've seen it in the way you shy away whenever you think you're getting too much attention from the people who care about you.”

Alex didn't answer, didn't make any move or indication to show he was even listening to Charlie's words but he also didn't try to interrupt him or push him away. Charlie took that as incentive enough and soldiered on.

“I also know it doesn't really matter how much I try to tell you with words all the ways I think you are an amazing person,” he added, gazing minutely at Alex's face to gauge his reactions, “or how much I enjoy your company, and how much I've grown to care for you over the time we've spent together.” He licked his lips, feeling his nervousness stir in his stomach at the older boys' blank expression. “I know words can't make up for it. So I was-- maybe expecting you'd give me a chance to show you?”

This time, Alex turned his head to look at him. He wore an inquisitive look on his face, and the suspicion was still there, as well as a good amount of skepticism, but he still wasn't making any active efforts into pushing Charlie away, so the younger boy held on to that.

“I would really like it if we could hang out together someday, as in a real date,” he confessed, shoulders sagging a little as if the words were the weight of his hopes being splayed in front of Alex's scrutinizing look. “I've been wanting to ask you out for a while now but it never seems to be the right timing.”

“Does now feel like the right timing?” Alex asked, at last, hand still holding his cup motioning at the party in full swing around them.

“No, it feels like the worst timing of all,” admitted Charlie with a sigh, eyes lowering to his feet as the knowledge he had screwed up his chance started to sink in. “But I couldn't let you go home tonight believing I could only show interest for you while in an arranged situation.” He shrugged, figuring he'd lay it all out once there was no coming back from this point anyway. “I don't want you with me just to push girls away. I want you with me because I want all of you.”

Charlie kept his eyes glued to his sneakers when Alex stayed silent after his statement. He honestly couldn't tell how long it took for Alex to answer but in his mind, it felt like centuries before he heard the older boy's voice again.

“You are one funny jock, Charlie St. George. The one in a million kind, I think,” he shook his head begrudgingly amused. Charlie still didn't dare to lift his eyes to meet his, but his attention was focused on every one of his words. “How long have you been keeping this all in?”

“Longer than I'd like to admit,” Charlie informed. Alex chuckled at his words, and Charlie felt safe enough to lift his gaze to the older boy this time.

He couldn't name the expression he saw in Alex's face even after months of paying close attention to every one of his tells and quirks. He knew he should be unnerved by this — but he wasn't, not when Alex was reaching for his hand again, and when there was no hesitation in his movements while he entwined their fingers.

“I can't lie, I have no idea what you can possibly see in me, especially with all these opportunities you have to hook up with other people piling up at your feet,” said Alex, eyes fixed on their hands together on top of the loveseat.

Charlie couldn't just stand by and listen to Alex talking himself down like that. “Alex, don't--”

“Be quiet. You had your turn to say your piece, now you just shut up and listen,” Alex arched his eyebrows, moving his gaze to meet Charlie's dissatisfied one. When Charlie rebelliously nodded his agreement, he added, “I also happen to know we don't choose how we feel about people. So while it escapes me how someone like you could ever like someone like me, I've seen weirder shit happen. I'm just sorry you ended up stranded with me.”

“Are you done? Can I punch some sense into you now?” Charlie squeezed Alex's fingers, eager to start advocating for all of Alex's good sides that he liked about so much.

“I'd also like to add that, yes, we could go out on a date eventually, if that's what your goody-two-shoes self would like,” Alex continued on a lighter tone as if Charlie hadn't interrupted him.

The change of tone was so sudden that it left Charlie reeling. He blinked twice, eyes raking over Alex's face bemusedly. “Are you serious? What's the catch?”

“No catch,” Alex chuckled, lowering his gaze back to their fingers. “I know half the time it sounds like I'm talking myself down for sport but it's not that. Me not saying how I feel about myself doesn't make it magically go away, y'know. I need to vent it out from time to time.” He pursed his lips, rolling the words in his head in search of a better way to say them aloud. “But I don't hate my life. Not anymore, at least. And as hard as it is to feel like I deserve good things, it sounds stupid to have fought so hard to get a second chance not to make something good out of it.”

Charlie waited for a few seconds for him to add something more but when that didn't come, he ventured, “Does that mean to say you're giving me a chance or...?”

“For fuck's sake, Charles, yes, I am giving you a chance,” said Alex exasperated, but his lips were curving into a smile even as his annoyance bled out from his words. “I can't promise you that it won't be a bumpy road, or that we'll make it work, or even that I won't deliberately make it more difficult than it has to be,” he warned, fingers twitching against Charlie's nervously at this admission, “but you're one of the few people in my life who never looked at me judgingly, and I really like how I feel when I'm with you. So yeah. I can see it growing from there, and I'm willing to give it a shot and see where it goes.”

Charlie could tell his smile was big enough for his face from the way Alex chuckled when he laid eyes on him again. “We'll go slow, as slow as you want,” he promised, his free hand joining the other in holding Alex's tenderly. “Seriously, I appreciate our friendship a lot too, on top of anything. I would never want to mess it up, whatever comes next after here.”

“About that,” said Alex, as if suddenly reminded of something, “you said earlier you didn't like to hook up with people at parties because there was no time to build a connection with someone over one night.”

“I did, yes,” Charlie agreed, eyebrows dipping at Alex's sudden change of topics once again.

“Well,” Alex stared at him meaningfully and waited, but Charlie was still slow on catching up to what he was saying. Alex let out a long-suffering sigh, smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he added, “Do we have enough of a connection to you?”

Charlie realized he wasn't breathing as Alex's words registered in his brain — but he wasn't too eager to jump to conclusions and tip over the careful balance they just seemed to have achieved. “... yes.”

Alex's smile grew to the point of showing his dimples, and Charlie wasn't sure if he'd ever seen him smile like that before. “Good,” he said simply, and when his eyes lowered to the younger boy's lips, Charlie was sure his heart was beating somewhere out of his chest.

When their lips touched — sweet, chaste, nothing like the desperate clash of tongues that usually seems to be mandatory at parties — in-between his body tingling and his mind short-circuiting, Charlie was reminded of how this night started. He sent up his thanks to the gods of fake-dating for looking kindly upon them tonight.

**Author's Note:**

> Funny thing happened: I had my mind set on doing 'fake dating' as the prompt for free day ever since the beginning. As I started to write my idea two days ago, I got too taken with it and the inevitable happened. Plot started to pop out everywhere, and I decided I'll make a longer fic out of that first draft. So do expect to see more of the fake dating trope in the near future cause I'm not fully done with it. I'm laughing/crying right now, cause I'll walk out of Chalex Week with more projects than I entered it.
> 
> This last week was wonderful, and I thank all of you who spared the time not only to read my works but to leave a kudo/comment, it means so much to any ficwriter. Your support is the only thing that keeps us inspired to write more. Two months ago, I hadn't written/posted fanfiction in about five years. Today I check the last box on all the prompts from Chalex Week. I can't remember the last time I wrote this much (and I apologize for any typos/inconsistencies I'm sure were left behind but the time was sparse to be as thorough as usual) and this would never have happened without your guys support. So thank you so, so much for every kind word <3 it seems very little, but for us writers it means the world.


End file.
